The recognized agricultural practice of forage harvesting consists of cutting either green or mature crop material into discrete particles, and conveying the particles from the field to a storage facility, such as a silo. While in storage the crop material undergoes an acid fermentation to give the particles an agreeable flavor and to prevent spoilage. This overall operation, which is commonly referred to as an ensilage process, converts standing crop in the field to livestock feed, generally called silage.
An essential piece of farm machinery used for producing silage is the forage harvester which is adapted to gather standing or windrowed crop material from the field, chop it into small particles and then convey the cut crop material to a temporary storage receptacle, such as a wagon. Harvesters of this type are either self-propelled or pulled by a tractor. Typically, forage harvesters comprise a base unit having a rotary cutter having a generally cylindrical configuration with knives peripherally mounted to cooperate with a stationary shear bar for cutting material by a shearing action as it is passed across the surface of the bar. The chopped crop material is then discharged from the harvester through a spout, which directs the flow of crop material to a wagon towed behind or along side the harvester. U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,846, issued Sep. 23, 1980 in the name of E. H. Priepke et al, shows a self propelled forage harvester that has a general configuration that is typical of prior art base units.
Forage harvesters, regardless of the type, i.e., both self propelled or pull type, have a crop gathering attachment that initially encounters crop material, as the harvester moves across the field. As mentioned above, the crop being harvested is either standing, such as row crops, or lying in the field, such as grass raked into a windrow. In the case of windrowed crop, a pickup attachment, extending from the front of the harvester, typically includes a reel consisting of a plurality of fingers, each of which is moveable through a predetermined path for engaging and picking up the windrowed crop material from the ground. The fingers urge the crop material rearwardly over side-by-side stripper plates that define slots through which the fingers extend. The stripper plates terminate in the general vicinity of a transverse auger that consolidates the crop material and feeds it through a rear opening in the header to the base unit of the harvester for processing. A typical forage harvester windrow pickup attachment is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,756, issued on Jan. 29, 1985 in the name of J. G. Greiner, et al, hereby incorporated by reference.
In present day forage harvester operations there is a need for a pickup attachment that is readily serviceable. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,171, issued Oct. 1, 1991 in the name of Gary L. Bich, et al, is directed to an arrangement for mounting or removing tine guards on a pickup in a time saving manner. In the '171 patent, hereby incorporated by reference, a plurality of tine guards are affixed to upper and lower mounting plates, 30 and 32 (see FIG. 2), that are removeably secured to the pickup frame. The entire assembly is removable to gain access to elements of the reel. This obviates the time consuming task of separately removing and reattaching each individual tine guard under circumstances where field repair or routine service requires replacement of the guards or tines, or access to other reel elements enclosed within the tine guard assembly, e.g., tine bar bearings, cam follower assemblies, etc.
To this end, the present invention is directed to an improved windrow pickup attachment for forage harvesters having new and unique features for improving serviceability and attendant cost effectiveness without affecting reliability.